Crash and Burn
by forensicfreak14
Summary: Greg Sanders helps a girl out of kindness. But will she end up helping him?


A.N.) Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I updated anything of mine, but school's being a pain in the ass. But, I have managed to work on something at night with my friend SaxophoneForensicschic05. She and I have been writing a skit which I have decided to turn into a fic. So, please read and review. I'd love to know what you all think of this.

Enjoy!

'If you need to fall apart, I can mend a broken heart. If you need to crash then crash and burn you're not alone.'

                ~Savage Garden (Darren Hayes/ Daniel Jones):

                             Affirmation-Crash and Burn

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Chapter 1

            It was the end of a long shift. The sun wasn't up just yet, day shift now coming in to start their day. Graveyard shift had just ended, the crew leaving until the next shift.

            Greg Sanders, head lab tech in DNA, was leaving CSI headquarters. He was exhausted, having just pulled a double shift. He yawned as he walked to his car, a midnight blue Tahoe.

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            She was running through the darkness as fast as she could, ignoring the pain shooting through her body. She just barely saw the figure yards in front of her. Looking all around her, she kept running toward the shadowy figure.

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            Greg had just reached his car when he heard someone scream.

            "Will someone help me?!"

            Greg jumped as he turned around in the direction of the scream. He saw a shadowy figure running up to him, not sure if they were male or female.

            The figure ran up to him.

            "What's going on?!" Greg demanded of the person now in front of him, seeing that the mystery person was a female in the very dim light.

            "Please, take me with you. I don't care where, just take me!" the girl cried out, looking at Greg.

            Greg wasn't sure what to do. Some random girl runs up to him and asks if he can take her with him? That's just not normal.

            "Why?" he asked, still hesitant.

            The girl was looking around like a trapped animal, looking around everywhere as though expecting someone to suddenly appear.

            "Please, I'll explain later! Just please!" she cried, eyes still darting around like crazy.

            Greg could see the fear in her eyes. It didn't take a genius to see that she really needed help.

            "Sure. Get in," Greg replied, unlocking his car.

            The girl was in the passenger's seat and buckled up in no time at all. Greg still hadn't gotten a good look at her.

            "Care to tell me what's going on?" Greg asked as he drove, not looking at the girl.

            "I......I will.....just....just not yet..." she stuttered, the fear in her voice taking control now.

            He started the car, soon driving down the main strip. Stopping as a light, he finally was able to get a good look at the girl. The sight of her startled him.

            The girl that had run to him was a terrible sight to see. She was covered with large bruises, cuts of all sizes also to be seen, some bleeding, some old and dried. Greg could see that she had two black eyes and large bumps around her head as well.

            He was silent for a few seconds after he looked at her. He finally spoke up.

            "Are you ok?" he asked her, glancing over at her again.

            "No.......no I'm not," the girl replied, shaking her head slowly as though trying to decide if she really was ok or not.

            Greg tried to think of what he could do to help her.

            "Do you need to go to the E.R. or......." Greg started before realizing that he'd have to fill out paperwork if he took her to the hospital. "I have supplies at my apartment. I'll take you there."

            "I......it doesn't matter. Just....just take me somewhere..." she replied, looking out the window as the drove up to Greg's apartment building.

            Greg got out, the girl getting out quickly and following him inside. They soon reached the door to his apartment, Greg unlocking his door when they reached it.

            "Come on. It's safe here," Greg said softly to the girl, proving to her that he wouldn't hurt her.

            She quickly walked in behind him, looking around from where she was standing as Greg closed the door, locking it to prove the girl was safe.

            "Ok.  Please tell me who you are. What's going on?" Greg asked her.

            "Can....can I sit please?" she asked nervously, her eyes still darting around.

            "Sure. Go right ahead," Greg replied, motioning to some chairs in his kitchen.

            The girl sat down, though it looked more like she collapsed into the chair. Greg went and got a first aid kit from his bathroom and sat in the chair next to her, setting the kit on the table.

            "My name is Cristina Miltadez," the girl said, looking Greg in the eyes, pain showing through her sapphire blue eyes.

            "Hello Cristina. I am Greg Sanders," Greg said to her quietly, not wanting to scare her anymore than she already was.

            "If you want, you can call me Cris. I really don't mind," she replied, still looking at Greg.

            Greg started to work on one of her smaller cuts, knowing he had a lot to clean up.

            "Just keep talking," Greg said to her, not looking up from his cleaning.

            "I.....I can't actually remember all what happened. I think I took a few hits to the head," Cristina told him, looking at Greg as he worked.

            Greg stopped cleaning the cut long enough to look into her eyes. A strange feeling went through him at that time.

            "You have two black eyes," he said, getting up and getting her two ice packs.

            "Thanks," she replied, taking the ice packs from him. "No wonder my eyes hurt so much..." she added as she put them on her black eyes.

            Greg went back to cleaning her cuts when he came upon a fairly deep one. Knowing he'd have to use hydrogen peroxide on it, he warned her first.

            "Ok. I'll have to use peroxide on this one. It's very deep and it has something in it," Greg said calmly.

            "You have to?" she asked, but it was too late.

            Greg had already uncapped the bottle, taking a cotton ball and covering it with the peroxide. He put the peroxide filled cotton ball on her cut and began cleaning it. Cristina let out a scream as she flinched horribly.

            Greg hated making her hurt like this, but he didn't want her cuts to get infected. Cristina still whimpered as he wrapped gauze bandages around her largest cuts. When he finished, he looked at her.

            She had removed the ice packs from her eyes, Greg noticing that the swelling had started to go down around her eyes.

            "So, tell me what you remember," Greg said, leaning back in his chair.

            "I......I remember I was with my boyfriend. I remember telling him I wasn't his anymore because of how he was treating me. Then everything went black," Cristina replied, trying to think about what had happened.

            "Trauma to the head I believe. How did you end up in CSI's parking lot?" Greg asked her.

            "As soon as I woke up, I saw him sleeping and the car was unlocked. So I opened the door and ran as fast as I could at the time. Normally I'm so much faster, but I hurt so much right now. I ran to the nearest place with lights," she replied, looking around from where she was sitting.

            "You could have gone inside also. It's a safe building. It's a police station as well as a lab," Greg told her.

            "I didn't know where I was," Cristina said, looking at Greg again.

            "Understandable. Are you from Vegas?" Greg asked.

            "I'm not originally. I'm from Savannah," she replied.

            Greg could tell that she was warming up to him, speaking more openly now. The fear in her eyes and her voice had left, a confident girl now emerging.

            Cristina stood up, letting out a scream as she fell to the ground. She looked at a long, deep gash in her right leg. Greg grabbed the first aid kit and sat on the ground in front of her.

            "Damn it hurts......" Cristina said through clenched teeth, closing her eyes as the pain swept over her.

            "I know it does," Greg replied calmly, hoping to soothe her while he cleaned up the gash.

            "I guess the adrenaline from fear kept me from feeling it before," she said, flinching and letting out a yelp as Greg touched the gash.

            "I'm sorry," Greg replied quietly, though still cleaning her leg. "And I know what you mean about the adrenaline," he added.

            "It's ok," Cristina whispered to him. "I can't believe this is happening to me again," she added, looking away.

            Greg started covering the gash on her leg with the gauze bandages now, just kind of looking at her as though trying to see the reason for her last comment.

            "It's not the first time," Cristina told him, still not making eye contact.

            "Tell me about yourself then. Maybe I can help you with this," Greg said to her, Cristina's eyes now looking into Greg's.

            "Well, I'm 26 years old, currently enrolled at UNLV. I want to major in Genetics. I have a few more months left until I graduate and I'm already at the top of my class. But, I have to pay my own way. So, you see, I'm an artist. A damn good one at that. But my art doesn't pay enough. So I started looking around for places that wanted singers. That's one of my few talents my parents love; my voice. So I met this guy, who is now my boyfriend, and he's my manager in a way. But.....I hate him. For the past 3 years I've been trying to leave him, but he keeps coming back, finding new places for me to sing at so I can finish college," Cristina told him, keeping his attention.

            "The classic story," Greg sighed.

            "What?" she asked, not understanding what Greg meant.

            "Paying for college by yourself," Greg explained to her.

            "It's not easy."

            "I know."

            "But this is my only way," Cristina said sadly.

            Greg felt a pang of sadness for her deep inside of him. He wondered if there was anyway he could help her.

            "Why couldn't you get rid of him?" he asked.

            "I wish I could, but he's the only one who can find jobs for me. No one wants a girl who works well in a lab who hasn't graduated yet. If I was able to, I'd do that and be free of him and his abuse forever. But until then, this is how I look normally," Cristina responded, pointing at herself.

            "Lab?" Greg asked, thinking about what she had just mentioned.

            "Yes. I said I was majoring in Genetics," she replied.

            "Right. Sorry. Long night," Greg said, blushing.

            Cristina didn't notice him blush.

            "But right now, I'm just a singer and artist that, and this really scares me, my so called boyfriend has tried to sell for more than my mentioned talents. Every time I refuse, I get hit, or cut," she said, looking at the ground as she spoke.

            Greg had a hard time thinking of what to say next.

            "Sell? You mean......" he said.

            "Yeah, I do. No one cares about who I am. Only what they know they can get from me without my consent," she replied, sadness filling her eyes again.

            Thoughts were going through Greg's head just then. Had this girl been sold into prostitution? Or was it merely tried and failed every time?

            "That's not right. That's a crime," Greg told her, trying to think of ways for him to help her with this problem.

            "I know. I've read all about crimes and crime scenes. It interests me, but I don't want to be a crime scene myself," Cristina replied, looking over her bandaged arms and legs.

            "You already have been. I mean, look at yourself," Greg said to her, gently touching her arm.

            "I know. That's what makes me feel so bad," she replied as she started to cry. "I feel so alone in this world. I just want to leave it!"

            Greg felt another pang of sadness for her deep inside himself.

            "Shhhh. No, don't say that," Greg said to her softly.

            "But it's true!"

            Greg had an idea as to what might make her feel better. Maybe if he told her a tiny bit about his past.......

            "You want to stay here. Believe me, you do. Good things can happen to people who wait. I mean, I have a steady job and I didn't have a great beginning," he said softly, looking at her.

            "Really? But, I still have a problem right now," Cristina replied to him, looking at her watch.

            "What?" Greg asked, not sure what her newest problem was.

            "My boyfriend has keys to my motel room. It's a run down piece of shit and there are no locks. He's going to come back after me as soon as I get back home. If you could call it a home," she said, rolling her eyes at the last part.

            "Then stay here," Greg told her, getting her full attention again.

            "You'd really let me stay here even though you hardly know me?" she asked him, not sure what to think of Greg's further act of kindness.

            "I understand and I don't think you will kill me. So, yeah, why not?" Greg replied.

            "Thanks so much!" Cristina said, finally showing a smile.

            Greg could have melted from her smile. Why was he feeling like this toward a girl he had just met, what,  not even an hour ago?

            "No problem," Greg replied, smiling as he tried to repress a yawn.

            "I'm sorry if I'm keeping you up," she said, trying not to yawn herself.

            "It's ok," Greg said, looking at his watch. "I only have to be at work in 7 hours."

            "I'm really sorry to be causing you this trouble," Cristina said to him, still sitting on the floor.

            "It's really no trouble," Greg replied.

            It was true. He didn't know why, but for some reason he felt like he couldn't let this girl go back and get hurt again. Was he falling for a girl he just met?

            When Cristina tried to get up, she fell again.

            "Well that won't work," she mumbled, sitting on the floor.

            "Here. Grab my wrist. I'll help you up," Greg said to her, smiling.

            Cristina grabbed his wrist with both hands. Suddenly a strong wave of warmth swept through Greg when Cristina touched him. Damn it! Was he really in love with her?!

            Greg helped her to her feet, helping Cristina up as though she were just a feather.

            She stood on one leg, the other hurting too much to stand on. She let out a small yelp as she moved her right leg.

            "Lean on me. I have an extra room you can use," Greg told her as she leaned against him, putting an arm around his shoulder for extra balance.

            "I can't thank you enough for helping me like this. No one's helped me in this way before," she told Greg as they walked down the hall.

            "You are in need. So I'm just doing what's right," Greg replied, still helping her down the hall.

            "But really, thanks," she said as they walked into Greg's spare room.

            "It's no problem," Greg told her as Cristina sat down on the bed.

            "Wow, a bed that's not like a brick. Nice," Cristina said, lying down on the bed.

            "I'm glad you like it. I need to go to bed so I can function at work tonight," Greg said, not holding back his yawn this time.

            "Right. Sorry. And thanks again," Cristina said to him as Greg walked to the door.

            "Not a problem. If you need me, I'm right across the hall. Bathroom is at the end of the hall," Greg said, standing in the doorway to the room.

            "Thanks. Sleep well Greg," Cristina said before pulling the covers up over her.

            "You're welcome. Get some sleep," Greg said quietly, smiling as he closed the door.

            Was he truly falling for her?

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A.N.) So? What did you think? Was it my normal standards? Like I said, it's a skit that I'm turning into a fic, so some of this stuff was added in. And thank SaxophoneForensicschic05 too. She and I have been working on this skit together, so I owe her some credit too.

As always, please read and review!


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